


An Unearthly Family

by Nehszriah



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, I love how much of a jerk One was to start it lends so much extra depth, Serial: s001 An Unearthly Child, a young!First Doctor AU, retelling of An Unearthly Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23339365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nehszriah/pseuds/Nehszriah
Summary: In an effort to see what is going on with their peculiar student, two teachers in the East End of London get a bit more than they bargained for: her even more peculiar “grandfather”… or at least, that’s what he calls himself. [2820 words; a young!One retelling(ish) of An Unearthly Child]
Relationships: First Doctor & Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton & First Doctor & Susan Foreman & Barbara Wright
Kudos: 14





	An Unearthly Family

**Author's Note:**

> Backstory: I was reading one of my bby!Twelve AUs and went “hey, I wonder who could also add a different dimension thanks to an age shift” and immediately thought of this. Partial credit also goes to my boyfriend, who has had this idea in the past (which is probably why my thoughts went this way) and might do another version of it, but for now please take this.

“Ian, I’m worried.”

Ian Chesterton glanced over at his friend and colleague, Barbara Wright as she sat at one of the chairs in the science lab. At least, he hoped he was her friend. They were both secondary teachers in Shoreditch—the East End—and if that was anything that could forge a friendship, then there was little that could. Like with many others, they would often confide in one another about their jobs during lunches and prep hours, and it sounded like today would be little exception.

“What are you worried about?”

“It’s not what, but whom.”

A name immediately popped into his head, as though their three years of teaching together was beginning to pay off. “Susan Foreman?”

“Yes; she was talking about Mary, Queen of Scots, yesterday as if they knew one another.”

“It makes sense, for Susan anyhow,” Ian nodded. “She was babbling something about the fourth dimension earlier today in class—using words I haven’t heard since I had a physicist roommate in university.”

“…to seemingly know all these things and yet not know how many shillings are in a pound or who the Beatles are or who the Queen is… it’s all very peculiar…” Barbara mused. She saw the confused expression on Ian’s face and exhaled heavily. “It took me a while, but I realized the other day that she was referring to the Queen Mum, not the Queen herself, when she was referring to ‘Queen Elizabeth’.”

“What a space cadet…” Ian frowned. He pondered for a moment before nodding. “I think we should pay a visit to her grandfather… make sure he knows all about how fanciful she’s being and that it’s beginning to disrupt her schooling.”

“Do you really think we should?”

“It’s worth a try,” he shrugged. “It’s just her, her grandfather, and an older brother or cousin, correct?”

That took Barbara by surprise. “A brother or cousin? I’ve never heard her talk about anyone else other than her grandfather.”

“He was the one who registered her, if I recall correctly,” he said. “I remember her being picked up a couple times by a man about our age as well—it has to be a relative.”

“…at least, _we hope_ it’s a relative.”

Ian’s stomach lurched as he considered the options. He wanted every single one of the teenagers they taught to go on and do great things with their lives, yet there were still some that slipped through now and then no matter their best efforts. There were girls who would get pregnant by older men, forcing them to drop out and never finish school; boys who would get involved in gangs and crimes, being misled that their time might be better served elsewhere; children who would need to go to work to help feed their parents and siblings, never returning once their financial situation evened out. He wanted those days to be over with—things that simply haunted his memories of growing up in the War—and if it took visiting students’ homes unannounced, then so be it.

“Tonight—let’s the both of us go,” he nodded. “It will be better for two instead of one or the other—they might feel threatened by me and feel as though they can threaten you.”

“I’ll have you know, Ian Chesterton, that I can hold my own in a fight,” Barbara smirked. “One of these days I might even get to demonstrate.”

Awkwardly laughing it off, the two teachers finished their break and continued going about their day. They met outside the gate after school let out and pretended to nonchalantly walk together as they began to tail one Susan Foreman. She was odd, yes, but so cheery and enthusiastic about everything and anything that they did their best to not become increasingly concerned as they followed her from a distance to see where she would go. Eventually she turned into a junkyard, right at the end of a suspicious road as the sun was beginning to set.

“I.M. Foreman… this must be her grandfather’s business,” Barbara figured aloud.

“What is he doing raising children in a scrapyard?” Ian frowned.

“Chances are: _what he can_ ,” she reminded him. The two then steeled themselves and walked up to the door in the gate, knocking loudly. “Pardon me! Is a Mr. Foreman in?”

The door slowly creaked open, allowing the teachers access. There seemed to be no one else in the junkyard—there was barely any junk, to be precise—and the aura that was settled over the place was a chilling one.

“Susan…? Mr. Foreman…?” Ian called out. “It’s Mr. Chesterton and Miss Wright from Coal Hill! Can we have a word?”

“ _Oh, they **are** cute_,” said a crisp male voice, his tone dripping in a grin.

“ _Lay off them, Grandfather—they’re nice_ ,” Susan replied. Barbara and Ian both glanced around, not seeing the source of either voice.

“ _If they’re so nice, then why are they trespassing, hmm?_ ”

“ _They’re only concerned; it’s part of their job_.”

“ _It’s still none of their business_ …”

“… ** _Grandfather_** …”

“Where are you?!” Ian shouted. “Why are you hiding?!”

“ _Calm down, boy; we aren’t hiding at all… not any more than normal…_ ”

Suddenly, the achy creak of unoiled hinges cut through the air, making both Ian and Barbara jump. They looked over towards the corner of the yard and saw a police box, whose door was open in an invitation to enter.

“Uhh… Barbara…?”

“Yeah…?”

“Did you see that police box when we first walked in?”

“No… but have you ever seen a police box that opens inward?”

Her observation hung in the air, the two attempting to see inside the police box despite the bright light coming from it. Barbara took a step forward, with Ian grabbing her shoulder to stop her.

“We should call the police,” he said. “ _Proper_ police.”

“Not until I know what’s going on in there,” she replied. She walked out of his grasp and he followed in turn, both heading into the police box for the sake of their odd, yet kind, student.

Once they were inside, however, neither Ian nor Barbara could wholly believe what they were seeing. It was much bigger than a police box should have been inside, with both educators marveling how it was bigger than each’s flat. An odd sort of console-looking thing sat in the middle of the room, with everything all around being white and shiny and rather round. Before either could react, Susan squeaked in delight and wrapped her arms around Barbara in a hug, completely taking her teachers by surprise.

“You finally came!” she cheered. “I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you two!”

“How long what would take?” Barbara wondered. “Where is your grandfather, Susan? We’d like to have a word with him.”

“Right here,” the male voice replied. The teachers turned around and saw the man who had been picking Susan up from school—not especially tall, but lean and almost hawkish in appearance. He was dressed in an old three-piece suit more suited for fancy dress or a period-play and held a smoking pipe in his hand as though it was there purely for show.

The only thing was that he couldn’t have been more than thirty at the very most. His slicked-back hair was brown and there was barely a wrinkle to him. Several mental warnings triggered in the educators’ heads; they were not dealing with a normal family.

“Ha, ha, very funny, mate,” Ian frowned. “Are you Susan’s brother? Cousin? Uncle?”

“Grandfather, clearly,” the man replied. “You may refer to me as ‘ _the Doctor_ ’.”

“The Doctor? Doctor Who?”

“Oh, I do _love_ that reaction,” the man grinned. He placed the pipe on a table they weren’t certain had been there before and strolled forward. “So these are the ones you’ve been hoping would follow you? They are a bit of a funny pair.”

“They’re not funny, Grandfather: they’re Mr. Chesterton and Miss Wright,” Susan insisted firmly. “They are two of the best teachers inside Coal Hill.”

“Chesterfield and Wright, hmm?” the Doctor circled around them, sizing them up. “They seem like they’ll do.”

“Barbara, Susan, we’re leaving,” Ian decided. He stepped between them and the Doctor, attempting to puff himself up and intimidate the stranger. “I don’t know what lies and other things you’ve been feeding this girl, but I know a creep when I see one.”

“Do you now…?” the Doctor grinned. “So what if I told you that we weren’t from this world?”

“I think, considering the circumstances, that bit might be open to interpretation,” Barbara noted.

“It’s true!” Susan insisted. “Grandfather and I… we’re not from this planet!”

“Everyone is from Earth—we don’t even have rockets to take us to the moon yet,” Ian insisted.

“ _You_ do not, yet _we_ do,” the Doctor said. He held out his arms, gesturing to the room. “This is the TARDIS, our faithful ship, who has taken us far and wide in search for a safe place to call home.”

“TARDIS…?” both Ian and Barbara questioned.

“Yes,” Susan piped up, “it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. The proper name is dull and boring, so I renamed her.”

“You renamed her?”

“Yes, Miss Wright, she did,” the Doctor said. “You see, we are refugees from our own planet, wandering in the fifth dimension, trying to stay more than a few steps ahead of our kinsmen at any given time. We were only supposed to be here for a short period, though Susan insisted we stay.”

“…and why stay?” Ian asked. “If you have all of time and space at your disposal, then why come here? To Shoreditch? Are you here to mock us?”

“No, Mr. Chesterton,” Susan interrupted. “We are here to _learn_ , to _explore_ , to experience lives that we never could have back home on Gallifrey! We wouldn’t be on the run if we were here to mock you…”

“…and yet your presence does provide a quandary,” the Doctor mused. “We cannot allow them to leave.”

“ _Grandfather_ …”

“No; with the way this is going, there’s nothing that Miss Wright can do to stop Mr. Chesterfield—”

“Chesterton.”

“Yes, yes; nothing she can do will stop Chesterwood here from exposing us and everything shall be ruined.”

“Oh Grandfather, you are a bother,” Susan pouted.

“I don’t know about this, Susan,” Barbara frowned. “It is just a game, don’t you see? He’s trying to keep you here… and I don’t want to find out how or why.”

“ ** _See?_** ” the Doctor scoffed. “They’re blocking everything out, even though the truth is right in front of them!”

“That’s what Humans _do_ , Grandfather! I don’t want to leave them so suddenly! They’re my friends! They care about me and me about them!”

“Then we won’t,” the Doctor said. He turned and walked over towards the console, which caused Ian to attempt to shove Barbara and Susan out the door.

“Quickly! While his back is turned!” They only made it a few steps before the door closed on its own. Barbara and Ian looked at the Doctor, whose brows were arched manically and an unsettling grin plastered on his face.

“Get ready!” he said before throwing a switch. The central console moved up and down, a screeching, grinding noise drowning everything else out. Both teachers tried to make their way back to the console, but the noise and rumbling of the room was too much. They fell to the floor and, after feeling an immense pressure, collapsed.

“Oh, now look at what you did, Grandfather!” Susan chided. Neither Barbara nor Ian could see anything, suggesting that they might have been imagining the entire conversation, though possibly not. “You nearly killed them!”

“I told you that we were in a less-than-exemplary period for finding fellow space-time travelers,” the Doctor said. “What is the fastest they’ve gone? Fifty miles an hour? At most?”

“You are _horrid_!”

“I am only thinking about your safety, my dear. Didn’t I promise I’d take care of you? Make sure that no Gallifreyans got their hands on you ever again?”

“You did, but…”

“…hmm…?”

“You didn’t have to try to kill two of my favorite teachers!”

“Try again, mate,” Ian mumbled. He attempted to get back to his feet, though his entire body felt weak. “Nice trick—now we’re leaving.”

“ _Are you_ …?”

Ian’s temper finally reached its limit, with him finally able to stand and cross the room, grabbing hold of the Doctor by his lapels. “Barbara and I are taking Susan and you _better_ be gone by the time we find a _real_ police box and get Scotland Yard on your case!”

“Go ahead,” the Doctor smirked. “Be my guest.”

Still infuriated, Ian stormed over to Barbara and helped her up. She was still a bit groggy, which made him feel even worse for her. “We’re leaving for real this time.”

“…but Mr. Chesterton…”

“Susan, you too; we’re going to my flat and phoning the police from my neighbor’s line.”

“I don’t really think we can do that…”

“…and why not…?!”

“Just look outside.”

Once Barbara was on her feet, the teachers slowly made their way to the TARDIS’s door. They opened it and their jaws dropped in amazement: they were on the bank of a river, the ship parked on soft white sand. A familiar set of cliffs seemed to jut out in the near-distance, no more than a few miles away.

“Oh pooh—it was supposed to change shape!” Susan griped. Her teachers looked back and saw that it was still a police box on the outside, though what was behind it interested them more. There, farther back than they really should have been, was…

“The White Cliffs,” Barbara marveled. “We’re in Dover. How long were we out?”

“No… this is wrong,” Ian said. “Right where we’re standing, there should be sea. There’s just a tiny river here instead of sea. We are standing in the middle of the Channel!”

“Neither Dover nor the Channel should exist for a very, very long time,” the Doctor mentioned. He leaned on the open doorjamb of the TARDIS, his expression smug. “Do you believe me now or do I need to take you both to watch the Sun implode because otherwise it’s not sticking?”

“Grandfather, be nice,” Susan warned. “They’re not normal Humans—I think they’ve gotten the picture.”

“So this really is your grandfather, isn’t he?” Barbara realized. “Who are you and where are you from?”

“We are from the planet Gallifrey, located in the constellation Kasterborous,” the Doctor explained. “Susan and I are what our kind refers to as _Time Lords_ , who are the keepers and guardians of all things in the universe. From beginning to end, we are sworn to protect it.”

“Every so often in our travels, we find someone, or someones, who we feel would benefit from traveling with us,” Susan added. “The TARDIS helps with that. Sometimes it’s a police box, but other times it’s a chaise lounge or a Grecian column—it blends in where and when it can, though it’s likely not doing it now because there’s nothing to blend in with.”

“You know that constellations don’t work that way,” Ian deadpanned.

“Eh…? Don’t they? Oh, it must be a translation error…” The Doctor turned towards the TARDIS and shook his head chidingly. “You know we must be gentle on more primitive beings, my dear. Their understanding and wordbanks cannot be expected to compete with ours…”

“…and _it’s_ alive too,” Ian groaned. He sulked momentarily, shaken from his internalized grumblings as he noticed something about the ground:

…it was shaking.

“Uh, Doctor…? What’s going on?” he asked. “The ground is rumbling and the sand is moving in waves.”

“Oh, it must be a mild earthquake—those do happen, you know,” the Doctor replied. He was about to continue smartly, only for Susan to cut him off with a scream, pointing towards the north.

“Get inside!”

The adults all looked and saw a great wave on the horizon, moving towards them at a terrible speed. All four rushed back into the TARDIS and slammed the door behind them, with Susan, Barbara, and Ian all bracing it as the Doctor went to the console. The roar of water began to rattle them and a bit leaked in underneath the door before the TARDIS was thrust into gear and they were safe once again.

“What was that?!” Ian gasped between panicked breaths. “A glacial lake surge?!” He cringed as he saw the Doctor’s face light up in glee.

“It might have been.”

“…that…” Barbara marveled, “would have put us in prehistory! Possibly before human habitation of Britannia!”

“You’d be surprised.” He stepped towards the two, holding out his hand. “All of time and space: where would you two like to go first?”

Barbara and Ian looked at one another and nodded—this was going to be one hell of a ride.


End file.
